Sunday, 1 April 2012

Well, Japanese Knotweed certainly isn't a welcome guest on the allotment. I suspected we had some bindweed due to the roots I'd dug up when I'd been digging over the allotment. But now we've had a sprouting of reddish coloured plants, some with fat stalks, it looks more like Japanese knotweed according to pictures I've seen on the internet. I can't even try and dig it up because most of it is running under the foundations of the paved area and, it seems, the foundations of the former brick shed. I might have to use weedkiller.

This was quite disheartening to find today, but at least it is mostly in non-planting areas (although is just beginning to encroach onto one of the beds).

I have got to the stage where I am starting to plant out now and my broad beans were definitely ready for some outside action.

I don't really feel like I know what on Earth I am doing. I generally find with gardening that you can read all the books in the world, but you don't really know what works and what doesn't until you try it out, so we'll see what happens!

We still need to completely dig over the middle plot as it is (still) full of weeds. We have covered over the bottom plot in attempt to let the weeds die and will make use of it next season. We now have a battery powered strimmer to try and keep the grass under control.

So, we are making progress! I just wish we didn't have knotweed to deal with!